Kim Sung-Keun

Kim Sung-keun (; born October 30, 1941, in Kyoto, Japan) is a retired South Korean left-handed baseball pitcher and KBO League manager. Over the course of his managerial career, Kim managed seven different KBO League teams, and is only the second manager in the history of the league to record 1,000 victories. He is a four-time KBO Manager of the Year, and as manager of the SK Wyverns led the team to victory in the Korean Series three times. His nickname is the "Baseball God." only the second manager to ever do so. Between 2009 and 2010, the Wyverns had a 23-game winning streak that ended in April 2010.

In 2011, Kim was ousted near the end of the season after a long-standing disagreement between him and the SK front office. This led to bench coach Lee Man-soo taking over the reins – a move that brought a lot of protests from the SK Wyverns fans, as Kim had led SK to the Korean Series in every year that he had been at the helm.

Immediately after leaving the Wyverns, Kim was hired by Hur Min to manage the independent minor league team the Goyang Wonders, which ended up playing in the KBO Futures League. He managed the team for all three seasons of its existence.

After the disbanding of the Wonders, Kim returned to the KBO in 2015 to manage the Hanwha Eagles. He left a game in 2016 due to dizziness. His stint as the Eagles manager did not yield much success — he was fired by the team in May 2017, 43 games into the 2017 season, with a record of 18 wins and 25 losses.

Controversy In 2002, Kim was fined ₩5,000 during that season for a beanball war that erupted between the Twins and Tigers. (The Tigers' manager was similarly fined.) In 2015, after another beanball incident, "Kim was fined ₩3 million for failing to manage the team properly, the first time in KBO history that only one manager was punished in a beanball incident."

KBO League managerial record Year Team Finish Games W L D Win % Notes 1984 OB Bears 3 100 58 41 1 .585 1985 4 110 51 57 2 .473 1986 4 108 56 40 4 .580 Lost Playoff vs. Samsung (2–3) 1987 3 108 54 52 2 .509 Lost Playoff vs. Haitai (2–3) 1988 5 108 54 52 2 .509 1989 Pacific Dolphins 3 120 62 54 4 .533 Won Semi-Playoffs vs. Samsung (2-1)Lost Playoffs vs. Haitai (0-3) 1990 5 120 58 59 3 .496 1991 Samsung Lions 3 126 70 55 1 .560 Won Semi-playoff vs. Lotte (2–1–1)Lost Playoff vs. Eagles (1–3) 1992 3 126 67 57 2 .540 Lost Semi-playoff vs. Lotte (0–2) 1996 Ssangbangwool Raiders 3 126 70 54 2 .563 Lost Playoffs to Hyundai (2-3) 1997 3 126 71 53 2 .571 Lost Semi-Playoffs to Samsung (1-2) 1998 3 126 58 66 2 .468 2002 LG Twins 2 133 66 61 6 .520 Won Semi-playoff vs. Hyundai (2–0)Won Playoff vs. Kia (3–2)Lost Korean Series vs. Samsung (2–4) 2007 SK Wyverns 1 126 73 48 5 .603 Won Korean Series vs. Doosan Bears (4–2) 2008 1 126 83 43 0 .659 Won Korean Series vs. Doosan Bears (4–1) 2009 2 133 80 47 6 .602 Won Playoff vs. Doosan (3–2)Lost Korean Series vs. Kia (3–2) 2010 1 133 84 47 2 .632 Won Korean Series vs. Samsung Lions (4–1) 2011 3 133 71 59 3 .546 Won Semi-playoff vs. Kia (3–1)Won Playoff vs. Lotte (3–2)Lost Korean Series vs. Samsung (1–4) 2015 Hanwha Eagles 6 144 68 76 0 .472 2016 7 144 66 75 3 2017 8 43 18 25 0 Overall record 1,338 1,121 52 Won 3 Korean Series; lost 3 Korean Series